Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 114936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“How many casualties?” I ask absently as The Brothers all fall quiet around us. As much as Kohen wasn’t a Brother of Kiznitch, I know that it will still sting for them. Especially for King.
Eli is in front of me in a flash, his hands on my cheeks. I feel Keaton stiffen beside me. “This isn’t your fault.”
“How many?” I demand, staring up at him.
“We’re looking at roughly nineteen civilians and—” He looks between me and someone who is behind me. “All of the crew that was there.” I feel like he’s punched me in the gut and I fall backward, thankfully landing on an empty chair.
My hand is on my mouth. “Midnight Mayhem is over.”
“Cartier, baby…” Keaton interrupts, kneeling down beside me.
I shake my head, my eyes on his. “No.” Looking around the room at everyone. My family. The people I trained for three years to protect. “The show is done.”
Two Weeks Later
I hadn’t thought much about what everyone would do once the show was finished. It gave people jobs. A way of life and living, yet somehow, I was the person who took it all away.
I’ve become a walking villain among The Village. No one talks to me. No one acknowledges me. The hardest part about being CEO is making the hard decisions. Why can’t anyone see why I’ve done what I’ve done? I know they’re not angry at me for the deaths, they’re angry at me for taking away the shows.
All week it has been press release after press release. We’ve had cops crawling all over us until their investigations could be complete, and thankfully, thanks to having The Kings, they didn’t sniff for long, but that does nothing for my conscience. I could have done something and I didn’t. I swear I could have.
I stare at my glass, moving my finger around the edges and closing my eyes when the music playing in the background hits all of the areas inside my mind that I’m hoping to bury.
“Didn’t think I’d see you here.” As much as I don’t really want to be here, I want to be here for Bam Bam. If you give your trauma the power, it will do just that all your life. I took mine back from him.
Chuckling into my glass, I raise it in the air, gesturing to the bartender that I’ll have another before sliding it across the sticky bar. “Me neither, to be honest, but what can I say… it’s the one place I know no one will look for me.”
“Providing…” Bam Bam slides into the seat beside me. He leans back on the bar, resting his elbows up and running his fingertip down my arm. “They do want to see you?”
Spinning around, I narrow my eyes on him. “Why are you here, Bam Bam? Why are you still with Dominic?” I know that Dominic is just as much a victim as anyone else when it comes to Delila; it still bothers me, and I’m not ready to forgive him yet.
Bam Bam’s smile widens, his hair out in a mess around his face. He looks out into the crowd, and I catch the lines of his profile. Sharp and defined jaw that leads to a pointed chin. His nose is slightly crooked from being broken too many times, but that’s no surprise. He didn’t get his name Bam Bam out of nowhere. “Since my sister died, I’ve made it my job to try to fix my father.” He grabs the glass beside mine, and I slowly bring mine to my lips. Dominic is his father? “And if anyone is going to kill that man, it’ll be me.”
“I didn’t know he was your father.” I sip on the clear liquid, hissing when the alcohol stings the inside of my cheeks.
“No one did. I’m not part of his world or The Elite Kings world. Not until I found out about Bailey. I came back. Dominic has been problematic all his life, but I knew he didn’t have shit to do with the Kiznitch mess.” He tilts his head to give me his full attention. “You handle that?”
I raise an eyebrow before shooting back the rest. “You know I did.”
Bam Bam laughs, smirking around his glass. There’s a certain swagger that The Kings have that The Brothers almost match. It’s strange, but The Kings just… you can spot them in a room full of people if you know what to look for. Bam Bam is rougher around the edges, but he most definitely fits the profile.
“So what? Why were you part of my training, hmmm?” I ask, running my fingers through my hair to rest my head on my palm. “Why were you there? Just to save little old me?”
Bam Bam turns his chair around to face me, spreading his leg wide. “You wanna know why I fucked you?”